Fiction
by Lethe Seraph
Summary: Nothing he knew was true, and the people he loved suffered the most. He woke up, and the process began anew. Two: Seto Kaiba watches through the window. He doesn't know.
1. Prologue

The first thing he notices when he wakes up is that it's gone.

There is an unfamiliar lightness around his chest, and he looks down. He grasps at the empty space uselessly, hoping that he has imagined its absence.

He hasn't.

He wonders if it's a dream. He has had these nightmares before, after all. He will awaken, and look down to see it there, and everything will be back to normal.

He looks down again.

It hasn't returned.

Now he begins to speak to himself.

"Oh-!" he gasps, clutching the light, loose fabric of his white shirt. "My Puzzle!"

Then he begins to realize his surroundings.

He lies on a mat in the center of a room. The room is large, and it is also white, and very clean. He feels small in this place. It makes him afraid.

"Yami?" he whispers. "Yami, where are you?"

The boy stares up at the ceiling, as though he hears a reply. He smiles. "I'm just glad you're all right," he says to the air.

It has been going on for thirty days straight.

-------

**_Fiction_**

_ by Lethe Seraph_

**_Prologue_**

--------

"Hey. Any changes?" The young man smiles and offers her a sandwich. It's a shame that his long bangs get in the way of his eyes, she thinks – not for the first time. It makes him look like a ruffian. She takes the sandwich gratefully, though.

"Tuna?"

"He turned into a tuna?" jokes Jou. He takes a seat next to her. "No, it's ham. You should know the difference. Seriously, Anzu, how's he holding up?"

"Nothing has changed," she sighs. "I don't think it ever will."

He frowns. His amber eyes glint, impressiveness dampened by those obnoxious bangs. She guesses what he is about to say, and he doesn't disappoint her. "Don't say that. The kid will get better."

She doesn't believe him. "I visited Yugi's grandfather in the hospital, Jounouchi," she says seriously. She remembers very well what it was like. So many wires and noises, and the dull, husky rasp of failing lungs; she remembers wondering how he could still be alive. Whether he even wanted to be alive any more.

"How was he?" says Jounouchi. He asks only for the sake of conversation – he knows already.

"He's had better days," she replies carefully. They are quiet for a moment, watching a boat pull out of the pier. Sunlight sparkles off of the surface of the water. It only makes her feel worse. "I wish that we could have helped him."

He hugs her then, awkwardly; avoiding her half-eaten sandwich. His voice is beginning to choke. "Anzu, you know that nothing we could have done…"

"I know! But…"

"But nothing," he says. "But nothing. Where the hell is Honda?" He pulls away from her, glaring around the harbor. "He's late."

"You thought he would be on time?" Anzu implies that this is a ridiculous notion, and it really is. They both know that Honda has probably gotten distracted, either by food or attractive persons, and expecting Honda to be on time is rather like expecting Yugi to shoot up three feet over any given summer.

"No," admits Jou. "I can still complain, though."

Anzu sighs again. He never changes. Even after … it ... has happened, Jou still makes the same stupid jokes. He still has the same grin as before, doesn't he?

She can't remember.

"Jou?"

"Hn?" Jou is gazing out over the water now. It still sparkles, but not as brightly; a cloud's path has begun to cross over that of the sun.

"What do you think happened to him?"

Jou turns to look at her. She can tell that he is carefully phrasing his answer, trying not to put her in some state of distress. Honestly, she isn't that sensitive. He's so protective. "Well," Jou says awkwardly. "Who can say except for the doctors? I think it was stress, probably. Like they said."

"Yeah…" Another lull in the conversation. The cloud is swelling slowly. She wonders whether it will rain later. Hopefully not; she has some gardening to do at home. Her mother's back hasn't been its best as of late, and Anzu has taken to relieving her of certain tasks. Her mother has always liked flowers; Anzu remembers how the bright, cheery colors always fascinated her as a child.

Maybe that's why she was drawn to Yugi in the beginning.

But why didn't she see…?

"Hey! Sorry I'm late!" Honda finally rushes in, panting. He jumps easily over the back of the bench into the space between Anzu and Jou. "What's up?"

"Why are you so late?" Anzu and Jou both smack the shoulder closest to them. Honda flinches and grins sheepishly.

"I was accosted on my way here," he says, tone rather teasing. "By Jou's bestest friend in the whole wide world."

Anzu catches on and claps a hand to her cheek in mock disbelief. "You mean _he _talked to you?"

"Why, yes, he did," says Honda importantly.

Jou blinks. "Uh, what?"

"Seto Kaiba!" Honda grabs the remnants of Anzu's sandwich and downs them. "I passed him on the way here," he says, mouth full. "Windbag wanted to know whether the media were telling the truth about Yugi, and if that was why Yugi's been absent for like a month."

"What did you tell him?" says Jou in a dangerous voice. Jou and Kaiba have never been able to look at each other without starting a fight. Anzu, personally, thinks that it's their odd way of showing each other that they like each other, but she's not about to tell them that.

Honda shrugs. "I just said that he's going through some family trouble. That's all."

"Good thing Kaiba didn't run into _me_," mutters Jou. "I woulda given him some of _this,_ and some of _that_..." He trails off, punching his open palm with his fist.

They look at each other.

"If Yugi were here…"

"Don't start, Anzu, you'll be crying buckets of tears before a minute is up," sighs Honda.

Jou agrees.

If only Yugi had been there.

--

He lies on a mat in the center of a room. The room is large, and it is also white, and very clean. It is unfamiliar, and makes him nervous.

"Yami?" he whispers, tremblingly. "Yami, where are you?"

The boy stares up at the ceiling, as though he hears a reply. He smiles. "I'm just glad you're all right," he says to the air.

One month, and nothing has changed.


	2. To whom do you speak?

This is a really weird story. XD That's all I have to say…

* * *

_"A hundred thou.__ That's all I'm askin', kid."_

_"But-!" Yugi had protested. "I don't – I can't –"_

_He had shoved him then, stony-faced as Yugi's slim body slammed into the pavement. It's getting chillier, Yugi had thought idly. Fall is here._

_"A hundred thou," the tall, stocky boy repeated. "Tomorrow."_

_Yugi was silent as the boy turned and left him._

_For one moment, almost imperceptibly, his eyes had narrowed._

* * *

**One: To whom do you speak?**

* * *

It starts as a soft nagging, at first, at the back of his mind. As the days pass, it becomes a bit stronger. When he is tired, or worried, he feels it as though there is a voice speaking constantly to him, telling him things that he can't quite hear.

It's a warm voice – a tempting voice. He knows that if he could just understand what it says, everything would be all right.

Everything would be fine.

As the days pass, the voice becomes louder and firmer, but he still can't decipher the meaning of its speech. He wonders whether anyone else hears the voice – whether it's normal.

No, it's not normal.

He's special, though, he knows that. His grandfather has given him a wonderful gift, and he has solved a puzzle that managed to remain unsolved for millennia – if his grandfather is telling the truth, of course.

He runs his fingers absentmindedly across the smooth metal as he ponders over classwork. It's a wonder that the teachers haven't decided that a large, pointed object such as the one hanging around his neck is against the dress code.

A whisper at his ear. He glances around. Nobody is looking at him; he determines it to be the strange voice once again, and looks back at the problem. How can he solve for this? Which equation is he supposed to use?

The whisper comes again, a bit stronger. Not right now, he tells it. I'm working.

* * *

If the boy is having family trouble, then what's he doing away from it?

He stands a few feet away from the door, looking in through its small window. It's like a door to a different world - sterile, white, closed away. Yugi's small frame can be seen lying near the wall opposite the door.

What is he doing?

Seto Kaiba confers with an elderly-looking doctor. "He hardly moves," the man says. "Stares at the ceiling. Sometimes, it's like he's – oh, he's starting again."

They both watch as the boy, still lying down, begins to shift. His lips form words. He pauses, and smiles, and then speaks again.

It disturbs Seto.

"What is he saying?" he asks quietly.

The doctor smiles and shakes his head. "We haven't been able to figure it all out. He speaks quietly – and mostly when we're not around. But we have been able to make out a bit."

Seto waited.

"Darkness," the man continues, "we hear a lot."

_Darkness…_

"How is his grandfather?" asks Seto after a moment. "Yugi must have been thrown into shock… they seemed very close."

"You don't know--?" The doctor turns to look at Seto, frowning. "What relation are you to him again?"

"I'm … a friend," he says. The strange word lingers for a moment in his mind.

_Or, rather, he called himself mine._

"Ah," says the man. "It was nice talking to you, but I really must get back to work."

And then Seto Kaiba is left with his confused thoughts.

* * *

He remembers pain.

He's been bullied by that tall boy again. Money. Money again.

He doesn't have it. He doesn't want to be hurt. He doesn't want to be hurt.

And then, on the last confrontation, a funny feeling spreads over him. The voice is whispering again, but louder, and lovingly, and it's telling him that everything will be all right.

Everything will be all right.

Green specks explode behind his eyes, like he's pressed his fists to them or run into a wall, and darkness slowly spreads. What's happening to his vision? Why can't he see?

The warm, fuzzy feeling grows stronger. It's wrapping around him; he's curling into a mental ball and hugging his knees.

And he hears, for the first time, words from the voice:

_I'll take care of it._

When he wakes up, he's back at home, in bed. It won't be until later that he finds out what happened to the bully.

He took care of it.

* * *

For months afterward, Yugi had been blacking out more and more frequently, and growing to trust the voice inside his head. He took care of things. He protected Yugi. He helped Yugi to make friends. Jou and Anzu and Honda, his beloved companions, and Seto Kaiba, the strange, quiet man, and Bakura Ryou, his sweet, shy, awkward acquaintance.

And Yugi was happy, and exuberant, and he wasn't afraid any more, because he had the spirit – he called it the spirit – and life was so sweet. He didn't know what happened to most of the bad people, but it was okay, because they were bad. The spirit was helping him. The spirit was guiding him.

Until that day.

And then the first adventure began.


End file.
